Drudge Report Taking The Uncredible, Stating It Fact

Internet news site The Drudge Report is passing off Iraq casualty figures from a questionable media outlet as fact, a journalist blogger asserts.

"Any legitimate news that U.S. troop deaths are sharply down, in a way that is statistically significant, would be welcomed with open arms by all," says Will Bunch, a senior Philadelphia Daily News writer, at his blog Attytood.

"Matt Drudge is running what purports to be just such a story on the top left of his incredibly influentual Web site right now as I write this," Bunch continues. "The headline reads: 'Baghdad security crackdown seriously curbs killings of US soldiers...'"

He invites readers to check the source of Drudge's link. "The article is not from a credible, independent media outlet," he continues, "but from the Kuwait News Agency (or KUNA). Kuwait is still America's biggest ally in the Gulf (for obvious reasons) and so the source of the story is a huge tell here."

The KUNA article credits the launch of new Baghdad security measures as the reason for a 60 percent decline in "the rate of killings of US troops in Iraq."

Bunch takes issue with a disclaimer in the piece that states, "The statistics excluded US troops killed in other governorates such as Al-Anbar, Diyala, and Salahiddin," which, he counters with data of his own, misrepresents the story.

He accuses Drudge of "spreading a Big Lie," even as the Senate debates troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Bunch writes, "No doubt, the gist of that headline is bounding around the airwaves of talk radio and in the electrons of cyberspace as we speak.

"And it is also influencing the judgment of America's news directors," he continues. "Mark Halperin, the political director of ABC News, and John Harris, who had the same job at the Washington Post and now runs The Politico, wrote a book chapter recently entitled 'How Matt Drudge Rules Our World.'"

"If Matt Drudge really rules their world," Bunch concludes, "it's time for a revolution."